France's National Assemblylast week passed a law requiring France-based companies directly or indirectly employing 5,000 workers in the country, or 10,000 employees worldwide, to establish a "plan of vigilance" for identifying risks of human rights, health and security or environmental violations within their global supply chains, according to Supply Chain Dive. The law requires requires such companies to draft a risk map, procedures for evaluating partners and subsidiaries, actions undertaken to mitigate risks and severe violations, and a mechanism to receive alerts of violations from workers and the organizations that represent them locally.

Guarding Against Corruption

A recent survey revealed that only half of multinational businesses carried out basic corruption checks on third parties last year, Supply Chain Management Review writes. Nearly half of the business leaders surveyed (44%) did not conduct face-to-face interviews or send questionnaires to third parties, and the same percentage did not have audit clauses in all their contracts. Well over a third of respondents (42%) said they did not have a complete record of all their third-party suppliers.

Construction Perks Up

U.S. construction spending during January was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,180.3 billion, 3.1% above the January 2016 estimate of $1,144.9 billion. Continued steady growth in private construction drove the majority of the increase.

Oil Prices Slump

And finally, a commodities update: Oil prices fell for the third straight session on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reports. Record high inventories supported largely from significant imports from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Canada drove the price down.